Why if someone was really upset and feeling down would they play music called the Blues? Wouldn't that just make them feel worse, singing about how down they are and all the troubles in their world? Yet, have you ever seen somebody playing the Blues who looks depressed? Hell, it usually looks like they're having the time of their life.
They could be singing lyrics that talk about how many times their woman has cheated on them in the past week, or how the world just keeps getting them down, and all the while they have a huge smile on their face. Of course some of them may not have actually ever experienced anything that makes them seriously Blue, so they're just having a great time playing some wonderful music. But what about somebody who has genuinely suffered at the hands of the world? Why in the world would they want to sing about stuff that will just depress them more?
I've heard a lot of people asked that question, people like B. B. King, Muddy Waters, and Big Bill Brozney who laid the foundations for the Blues we hear today, and they all seemed to be saying roughly the same thing; the emotional release that you get from singing about troubles helps you get over your own. 
Blues came out of the cotton fields via Southern Baptist churches, where they sang Gospel and Spirituals to help cope with a world that spat on them at every opportunity.
Out in the secular world people needed the same comfort, and that's where the Blues came in. Instead of testifying about the wonders of God to alleviate a wounded soul, they testified to the ongoing troubles of simply getting by. Is it any wonder that so many of the old time Blues musicians sound like they're only a couple of steps removed from the pulpit?
Now if there were ever a man who had a right to complain about the hand that life has dealt him recently it would be Lurrie Bell. Since the beginning of this year he's lost his partner - the mother of his child, photographer Susan Greenberg to illness, and his father, famed Blues harmonica player Carey Bell, to complications from a heart condition and diabetes. Yet instead of wallowing in misery like so many would be tempted too, Lurrie has chosen to celebrate the love he shared with these two very important people in his life.
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